The Jesus Maria was a Spanish slave ship operating in the early 19th century during the height of the transatlantic slave trade. Named after two of Christianity’s most sacred figures, Jesus and Mary, the ship was anything but holy. Beneath its religious name lay a brutal purpose: to kidnap, abuse, and transport African men, women, and children across the ocean in chains, all for profit.
Before its final capture, the Jesus Maria had sailed under the Spanish flag as part of a well-established slave trading network. Owned by Vicente Morales, the ship operated out of ports like St. Thomas in the Danish West Indies and made repeated trips along the West African coast, particularly Sherbro in present-day Sierra Leone.
On each journey, the ship trafficked hundreds, of enslaved Africans, cramming them into its dark, crowded hold for the brutal journey to Cuba and other parts of the Caribbean. These voyages were successful, often going unnoticed by authorities or sailing under false pretenses to avoid patrols. The Africans who didn’t die during the crossing were sold into plantations, and their stories vanished into the silence of fields and sugar mills.
None of those earlier journeys were recorded with the detail or scrutiny that would accompany the ship’s final voyage, but they laid the groundwork for what would come next.
In 1840, the Jesus Maria left St. Thomas once again, with Morales still as owner and Captain Lorenzo Ruiz at the helm. At Sherbro, over 278 Africans were forcefully taken aboard in one of the most horrific examples of maritime cruelty ever documented, most of them children, with only four recorded adults among them. This was no accident. Children were often targeted because they were easier to control and less likely to resist.
The enslaved children were crammed into the old leaky ship’s hold under unthinkable conditions. Space was so tight that many could neither sit upright nor lie flat. Chained together, they were left to suffer in extreme heat, disease-ridden air, and vomit. Food and water were scarce, and medical care was nonexistent.
When British cruisers finally intercepted the Jesus Maria and escorted it to Havana in 1841, what they discovered shocked even the most hardened veterans of the British anti-slavery patrols who described the Jesus Maria as one of the worst cases they had ever encountered. The conditions were appalling: overcrowding, starvation, disease, and death. But what truly set this voyage apart was the level of intentional cruelty.
Three people were murdered during the voyage, including a grown woman and two small boys, not for resisting, but from sheer brutality.
According to testimony, they were killed by having their bodies slammed against the deck and struck with such force that it caused fatal injuries.
In the captain’s cabin, a pattern of sexual violence unfolded. Multiple young girls were raped, not just by Captain Ruiz but by several members of the crew. British investigators, deeply disturbed, refused to describe all the details, calling it a “horrid catalogue of crime.”
The cruel irony of the Jesus Maria reflects a broader truth about the Atlantic slavery: it was an era defined by deep moral contradictions. Ships like the Jesus Maria and Jesus of Lübeck carried human cargo under the flags of nations that claimed to follow Christ. The Gospel was preached while girls were raped and men were beaten to death in the ship’s dark, airless hold.
Christian nations such as Spain, Portugal, and Britain, empires rooted in religious tradition, actively supported and profited from slavery. They built churches, sent missionaries, and quoted scripture, all while raping, trafficking, and enslaving African people across oceans.
After its capture, the children, disembarked in Cuba following a grueling 38-day voyage, many of them half-dead, starved, and mentally shattered. The case was brought before the Anglo-Spanish Mixed Commission Court in Havana, where the ship was condemned under international anti-slavery treaties. Survivors were declared legally free and registered in the Liberated Africans Register. What became of 233 Africans, 136 males and 97 females, afterward, whether they remained in Cuba, were sent to apprenticeships, or simply disappeared into society, remains mostly undocumented.
The ship itself likely faded into history, broken down, sold off, or left to rot. Its owners and crew faced no real justice, though the testimony of survivors ensured that the truth would be recorded.
Continue reading
How the Society of Jesus Sold 272 Enslaved Africans to Finance Their Missions in 1838
The Jesuits and Their Involvement in Slavery in the 18th Century
John Hawkins: The Father of the English Slave Trade and His Infamous Slave Ship, the Jesus of Lübeck
Sources:
https://www.slavevoyages.org/resources/images/category/Documents/157
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=oBQ6srSuwowC&pg=PA228&lpg=PA228&dq=the+Jesus+Maria+slaver&source=bl&ots=5v1FKY2J0Q&sig=O1OMPXfxY6vOUrZEbVcnPyJdNx8&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi3ltm4j7PSAhUZM8AKHQOuD6AQ6AEIHjAC#v=onepage&q=the%20Jesus%20Maria%20slaver&f=false
